On safari with her husband Joel, son Hunter, and daughter Savvy (left)

With her company founders Randy and Wendy Lewis

With her friend, mentor, and upline leader Josh Higginbotham

Heather Baker had worked in the publishing, marketing, and advertising world for almost 15 years when she realized building someone else’s business was not going to help her fulfill her dreams. She missed spending time with her family, and she knew there had to be a better way. In 2015, she came across an opportunity that would turn her life around and change her family’s future.

At age 23, Heather became a publisher for the Arkansas Times and started an automotive newspaper. “That’s how I met Joel, my incredible husband of 15 years,” she says. “He was one of my first clients in the car industry. We have two amazing kiddos, Hunter and Savvy.”

A few years later, Heather created a hunting and fishing magazine called Arkansas Wild. She also created Savvy Kids, a publication designed to bring families closer together and focused on children with learning disabilities.

“My plate was full,” she says. “I loved what I did, but I was building a business that in the end would never be mine. My family is my #1 priority. I love every moment I get to spend with them. Working in traditional business left my kids in childcare during the day. I missed field trips, school functions, and sports events because I was working. I knew if I could create success for someone else, I could do it for myself.”

Over the years, Heather had come across many network marketing opportunities. People constantly asked her to join their teams. Every time she went on social media, there it was: Buy my product! Join my company! This product cures anything and everything! It wasn’t all hype; she knew several peers and friends who were doing well in network marketing. They claimed to have the key to what she was wanting—making good money while having time freedom. The question in Heather’s mind was, “Could this work for me?” She had no idea… she was too busy working.

In early 2015, a friend called Heather and asked her to watch a video. He had actually been emailing and texting her links for months. This time, she finally slowed down to watch it. “Wow,” she thought, “Is this real?” The product provided instant results. She started tossing around ideas… “Could this be the Plan B I have been looking for? I could market this product to everyone. It could be huge!”

Heather knew nothing about the company, or the pay plan, or the other products, but she took a leap of faith. On January 25, 2015, she joined her company and went full force with it. She hit the first three ranks in a matter of hours, before she even received the products. Three weeks in, she hit the first leadership rank in the company, which is Sapphire.

“At that point I learned we had a binary system, and I had no idea what that meant,” she says. “Running and gunning so hard without a plan, I lost my team members as fast as they were coming in. I did promote again to Elite, and then I got stuck. My direct upline decided to leave, but I knew this company was the real deal. I had the will, so I had to find a way.”
In November 2015, Heather and her team attended their company convention, hanging on by a thread and in dire need of leadership. Heather noticed throughout the convention a new Diamond being mentioned over and over. He had not been with the company for very long… How did he hit Diamond so fast? Heather eventually figured out his name was Josh Higginbotham.

“We have a running joke that I stalked him to gain the info I needed to grow,” she says. “I managed to get invited to events he would be at, friended him on Facebook, messaged him questions, then finally got his phone number and called to ask for his help.”

Everything fell into place for Heather and her team to come under Josh’s leadership. They began working together and within a month Heather rank-advanced to Ruby Director. Her team now had a system that was “duplicatable” and everyone started getting on the same page.

“We had our launch down and were ready to grow,” says Heather. “We became a real team.”

Heather began spending time with the top achievers who were where she wanted to be. She stopped hanging out with anyone who was negative in her circle, because, she says, they have a huge impact on your life;

“I now play Jim Rohn in the car instead of music, start my day with Darren Daily, and read personal development books. I listen more and talk less.”

Heather’s Success Tips

The most important thing you can work on in this business is mindset. Thoughts are things. I’ve heard it a 1,000 times from Josh Higginbotham, but the day I really understood that in depth, my entire business changed.

From the book, Think and Grow Rich: “You have absolute control over only one thing, and that is your thoughts. If you fail to control your own mind, you may be sure you will control nothing else.”

Learning to control our thoughts is life’s battle. This goes for everything in life—winning or losing, fear or triumph, poverty or wealth, sickness or health, love or loss, and finally life or death.

Choosing to focus on the beauty in life and our blessings is heaven on earth. If I control my own thoughts, what seeds am I sowing? Am I tending my thought garden? What will my harvest be?

The good book says, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” An apple cannot produce oranges. Choose the seeds of your thoughts wisely. Jesus said, “If ye have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

Use the tools your company has provided. Make sure you understand the compensation plan and have an easy way to show it so others will as well. This is network marketing: you have to network and build relationships. If you listen, people will tell you what they need. It may not be what you need, so show them how they can achieve their goals and dreams. Work the system your team has in place. It’s simple, but not easy!

Stay consistent every day. People give up in this business way too quickly. This is not a get-rich-quick deal. It takes work and effort. When I ask my new distributors what their goals are, and they say “make $10,000 a month,” I ask, “Are you doing that in your current job?” If they say no, then I say, “That is completely possible in our business, but you are going to have to put in more time and effort, especially in the first three to five years, than you do at your full-time job.

As Heather was committed to growing, others on her team began to grow. Leaders began to develop and Heather was now running for Emerald.

“In this business you have to set goals with a firm date,” she says, “and your journey doesn’t end until that goal is accomplished. You aren’t swapping time for money; you are building a long-term residual income, which takes time.”

As she was learning how to become a leader, she began teaching leadership skills to others on her team. “I invested in the people who were running. I taught them the skills they needed to rank-advance, and most importantly, I trained them to teach the same to their own teams.”

Heather wants everyone’s dreams to come true. She teaches that with great income in network marketing comes incredibly hard work and, most of all, perseverance. She reminds her team that 10 percent of prospects need four follow-ups, and 80 percent need 5 to 20 exposures before they say yes.

“Follow-up is the key to success,” she says. “According to Google statistics, 48 percent of people never follow up after the first contact; 25 percent make a second attempt; 12 percent follow up a third time, and only 10 percent make more than three follow-up attempts.”

Heather says she knows exactly where she’s going and how to get there, because she has a system and follows it. This puts passion into everything she does.

“The obstacles I’ve had to overcome the last year taught me the skills I needed to be a better leader,” she says. “You are going to get no’s each and every day, as long as you are working. Remember, most prospects will join between the 5th and 20th exposure. Mindset is the key to success, so when setting goals, never say maybe and if; say when and how.

“Every day is a new day and I choose to make it the best it can be. No one will ever steal my dreams, and I will never, ever, ever give up.”